Apple fails to upset class certification in invasion of privacy case

October 20, 2016 - The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied today Apple’s bid for review of an order granting class certification in the firm's long-running data privacy case against it over the alleged surreptitious harvesting of iDevice users' address book data. The firm opposed Apple's petition to the Ninth Circuit, arguing that the trial court's decision to certify a nationwide class of almost half a million iDevice users who downloaded the Path app (triggering the automatic upload of vast quantities of private address book data to Path's servers) was legally sound. The Circuit Court's decision is a triumph for the firm, clearing the way for the case to proceed to trial against Path and Apple. The firm has pending asimilar class certification motion against five other app developers, including Instagram, Twitter and Yelp, for classes ranging from 800,000 to potentially 8.5 million iDevice users. Further developments in the case are expected shortly.